The online portal for submitting cannabis license applications to the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Managment (OCM) was unexpectedly shut down at 9:00 p.m. last Friday, just a few hours before the state’s adult-use cannabis business applications window was scheduled to close, FOX 9 reports.
Accela, the third-party vendor behind the online portal, said the site was back up and running by 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, although the application window was scheduled only until midnight. Ultimately, state officials extended the deadline to 11:59 p.m. on Sunday.
The cannabis licensing window was open to both social equity and general business applications, and the available licenses included cannabis microbusiness, mezzobusiness, cultivator, manufacturer, retail, wholesaler, transporter, testing facility, delivery service, and medical/adult-use cannabis combo licenses. Some of the license types have a hard cap allowed under state law, including the cannabis mezzobusinesses (100 licenses), cultivators (50 licenses), manufacturers (24 licenses), and retailers (150 licenses). The remaining six license types are uncapped.
This was just the first application window: lotteries for cannabis event organizer licenses, and low-potency hemp edible manufacturer and retailer licenses, are expected later this year.
Meanwhile, a report earlier this month found that Minnesota’s incoming cannabis industry is likely to be among the top U.S. contributors to cannabis industry sales growth over the next three years.
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